We just bought a house that was built in 1941.
There are a few exterior outlets near the base of the house (for outdoor tools) that do not work. I have tested them with a multimeter and there is no power, and the circuit breaker appears fine.
I think the outlets are extremely old because they are not GFCI outlets and they are exterior, and I am told that GFCIs are code for all exterior (Water facing) outlets. So, likely they predate code.
When researching this problem I found the link: http://removeandreplace.com/2015/02/10/no-power-to-outlets-in-one-room-or-wall-how-to-troubleshoot/
This link mentions a concept of "burned outlets". I do notice that there is a brownish hue on the outlet (it is not obvious) and I attributed this to being old or rust as it is exterior.
So, is the best path forward to kill the mains and try to replace this with a new GFCI outlet? Do outlets really just stop working with no other circuit or wiring problems?
Best Answer
Exterior outlets on a home this old may be more recent additions and still be older than the code requirement for GFCI's. I would power down the circuit pull the outlets and inspect the wiring. With external outlets that are not sealed and have "in use" covers or "extra duty" covers water gets in the outlets and they corrode. The in use covers have a cover that allows the outlet to be used while keeping rain out. If all the outlets are on 1 circuit you may find one has failed and the others are daisy chained, not receiving power from the point of failure. The other possibility is, I used to install switches on exterior outlets to allow holiday lighting to be turned off (there may be a switch some place that has killed the power to them).